NASA ST2 Championship - final outcome

[clubracer6]

Friday I recieved final word that my appeal for my DQ has been denied. In two seasons with NASA, this was my 4th appeal on a DQ/Suspension, but unfortunately, the first one I lost.

 

2nd lap of the Championship race, coming into madness, I went to pass a Mustang, Sawtelle and Griswald in his AIX Mustang. I was on dry tires on a wet track, so just a tad busy behind the wheel. I get past the 1st Mustang in turn 9 and get along side Geff as we go under the bridge headed to 10. As I crest the hill, I see the waving yellow and I also think I am just about clear off Geff (which I can see now, i wasn't). I get off the gas, but can't get to the right as Geff it still there. I do stop racing and deaccclerate up to to the incident. If I wanted to pass Griswald before the incident, I could have, so clearly I acknowledged the flag. As soon as we clear I am back on it. Apparently on the same lap, there was also issue with how I came into the carousel , but as you can see, there is no yellow in 12 and I do not pass until I am on the pit straight and the track is once again green.

 

My official DQ is because of turn 11 and where the stranded Mustang was. Even though I was not passing, I should not have been along side Geff - we should have been single file. In the 5 seconds from seeing the yellow, to the incident, I still contend I did not have time. My car was handful in the wet and I was especially careful under braking. Which you can see in the Speedcast video when I come into China Beach, where I would lose 3 to 4 car lengths on people. I feel I could not have braked any more than I did and more importanly, feel I was in 110% control of my car and was being extremely safe. That said, NASA is following the letter of the law, which I have to respect.

 

What bothers me the most is that the corner workers called it in and I don't understand why I wasn't given a black flag (furled or waving) or spoken to in impound. It's a shame that I did the interviews, the podium celebration, guzzled the champagne, enjoyed the accolades from my peers over the course of the next 3 hours at the track, and not once did anyone come to me to tell me there might be an issue. John Grabber was nice enough to give me a heads up, when I was 2 hours into my trip home (about 6 hours after my race. He told me there was a pass under yellow that was under investigation. The following morning, I called the race director for the AI race, Todd Covini. Left him a message saying I would like to talk to someone about what happened and that I wanted to send my in car to someone to review. All day, I kept checking the results and finally around 5pm est, they posted them as final and that I was DQ'd. Nobody contacted me or asked to see my video before deciding. In my 20 years of racing I have never seen anything like this.

 

I e-mailed my appeal on Sunday night and as I mentioned, found out late Friday afternoon the outcome. The apparently have quite a few issues like this they are dealing with.

 

I do have to say, John Grabber has been nice and as helpful as always and I do have respect for Jerry Kunzman, even though I don't fully agree with his desicion. He is truly a professional and still a racer at heart.

 

Anyway, here is the Speedcast video

 

http://www.speedcasttv.com/#/races/294

Start at the 14:36 mark... at 14:42, I am cresting the hill and I should be seeing the yellow now or in the following 10ths of a second - I think I am clearly ahead of Sawtelle in the 222 car, by just a nose. 14:52, I can't move my car any more to the right... If I ignored the yellow, there is no question I would have been around Sawtelle and Griswald with no problem. I had no where to go and I had stopped raccing at that point. The rules state if your pass is not complete by the yellow, then you need to fall back. I just don't think I had that kind of time.

 

My in-car of the incident:

Anyway, it is what is is and my apologies for not providing any cheese with this whine! :thumbs: There is always next year and another championship to be had, although this time it will be at Road America for me. NASA has a lot to offer and I still feel is a great organization, but it's clear that over the past two years, we just are not the right fit for eachother.

 

More and most importanly, I want to congratulate James Forbis on his ST2 Championship! Over the whole event I really got to know him on track pretty well and as I told him after, I really developed a great sense of trust running mirror to mirror and nose to tail with him. He chose wets for the big race and when the track dried out, he did the very best he could with them. They were literally smoking coming off the corners - fun stuff to watch. A great driver and truly a flawless championship drive!

 

For those still actually reading all this, you might be interested in my entire race... Speedcast missed a few fun things. I haven't had time to watch it myself, but will and will add some minute marks to take a closer look at.

Repost from the Corvette Forum

[disasterman]

I guess that's racing. You did a nice job over the three days. Sorry I blew so much smoke at you all, damn LS6 (working on that).

 

If you are not aware, you're not the only hard luck story. After spinning off track and being nearly a lap down, I made it up to third behind Forbis only to have an AIX impact my front wheel, braking my shock with a lap to go.

 

ST2 ran well together doing some fast times. It was fun, close racing.

 

Jim Stevens

[Red Tornado]

You ran incredibly well. This year they finally were brutal on yellows vs ignoring prior years. Bummer you got caught in cross hairs but if they stay consistent it's probably not a bad thing.

I lost a national championship once due to illegal headlight modification so it could always be worse. (scca).

[ILIKETODRIVE]

I lost a national championship once due to illegal headlight modification so it could always be worse. (scca).

Really? SCCA blows lol.

 

Face, meet palm.

[clubracer6]

It was fun running with you Jim and thanks Red, I appreciate it.

 

SCCA does have their issues, but I can't forgive the way this situation was handled. I should have been black flagged during the race... There is no reason I should have been half way home before I even heard there was an issue. To find out I was DQ's a day and half after the race ended via the results page is complete BS. Again, this is the 4th bad call on me in two seasons...

 

I brought quite a few over to NASA, but my days or running with them and promoting them are over...

 

Anyone see the letters section in the latest Grassroots Motorsports? If you haven't check it out...